RCN Wiki:Editing Conventions
Please try to use these conventions when you create an article, or discuss proposed changes to them on the Talk Page. :Work in Progress! Grammatical Tense RCN Wiki articles are generally written in past tense because there is no omnivalent present time in the RCN universe from the various readers' point of view. The exception is the Real World Articles, which include authors and the source material. Other than that, we write like historians in the future of the RCN writing about its past. Characters The title of a character article should only consist of the character's first name and last name(s), in that order. Titles, nicknames as well as additional given names should be listed in the header of the article. The character articles should include, at the top, a filled-out template. You can get a blank one by clicking the button at the top of the edit window. Note that the template will automatically include the article in Category:Characters. If you specify mother or father parameters, the parent's infobox will list the character's children. Vessels Articles for spacecraft and other vehicles should be named using a prefix RCS or AFS for RCN and Alliance Fleet vessels, respectively, regardless if they are referred that way in the books (since the usage there is not consistent). Redirects can be made for other common forms of names. No other vessels should be named using a prefix, i.e. do not use CS The articles should be started by filling in ; a blank one can be inserted by clicking the at the top of the edit window. The template will display an infobox, and automatically include the article in Category:Vessels. See RCS Princess Cecile for an example. To get a properly italicized and linked ship name, with the naval prefix, based on page existence, use . Example: ⇒ , ⇒ , ⇒ . Locations Please use in the beginning of location articles; the template has explanation of fields to fill in. Note that articles on star systems should have "System" capitalized even if it's not consistent in the books, thus Cinnabar System, not Cinnabar system. Categories and Properties Generally, each article should be in at least one category. In many cases, subsets of categories may be useful, such as the subset of Cinnabar characters, or Alliance characters, or characters who are naval officers. Since this wiki has the Semantic MediaWiki installed, most of these subsets of top-level categories should be handled with properties. This allows fewer categories, as well as crating dynamic lists using simple and complex queries. For instance, using properties Property:Service and Property:Highest rank it's possible to get a listing of all lieutenants, sorted by service. Continuity Issues Continuity problems should be mentioned in the articles. Unless there is an obvious typo, later usage should be judged more correct. As with law, later usage should generally prevail (see ''Lex posterior derogat priori''). If more than one spelling/naming has been used, please add the article in Category:Variable Spelling. Again, except for obvious typos, note the alternative spelling in the article, and if appropriate also add a redirection.